Mickey Spillane's tough private eye made his television series debut with "The High Cost of Dying," starring Darrin McGavin. The syndicated half-hour series ran from January 7, 1958 to November 28, 1959 for a total of 78 episodes. Spillane himself had minimal involvement in the series ("I just took the money and went home"), thus the character was not as gritty as the author had portrayed him. Nonetheless, the series was knocked from some corners for its "excessive and gratuitous violence" and TV Guide opined that it was "easily the worst series on TV." That reaction, I suppose, mirrored the common perception at the time of Spillane's work, despite the fact that the books rank among the best selling novels of our time with estimated sales of more than 200 million copies, and that Spillane received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America in 1983 and was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1995. I liked the series, and McGavin had a tongue-in-cheek approach to the character that many viewers responded to.
In this premiere episode, a convicted bank robber, Floyd Ingalls, has been stabbed in prison and is dying. He asks Hammer it retrieve the loot he hid before he was arrested and use the money to ransom his wife who had been kidnapped. But things may not be what they seem.
Directed by Lawrence Dobkin and scripted by Ken Pettus. Throughout the series Bart Burns played Captain Pat Chambers, Hammer's cop buddy, in 22 episodes. (Sorry, no Velda in this version of the series.) Also included in the cast were Lynne Allen, William Allyn, Robert Patten, Eleanore Tanin, Don Kennedy, Paul Baxley, Neil Collins, Herschel Graham, and Russ Collins.
Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfK93gNoCGY&list=PLRDHyUbhI8-WLt2eiUXzvx7A2bwQFwOO5&index=1
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